Martinsville: Jeff Gordon - Friday media visit

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET met with media and discussed the
spoiler, the possibility of qualifying being rained out, the challenges
at Phoenix, up and coming competition at Martinsville, and more.
HOW DOES THE CAR FEEL WITH THE ...

JEFF GORDON, NO. 24 DUPONT CHEVROLET met with media and discussed the
spoiler, the possibility of qualifying being rained out, the challenges
at Phoenix, up and coming competition at Martinsville, and more.

HOW DOES THE CAR FEEL WITH THE SPOILER?
"It feels great. I'm very happy. We just saw some faster speeds and I was
thinking that maybe it was the tires because it is a little bit different
Goodyear tire, but it could be the spoiler. But everything feels really
good."

DOES THE CAR LOOK BETTER WITH THE SPOILER?
"Well, one thing we've learned, and NASCAR has learned, is that
perception means a lot to the fans and in the media. It's not always
about performance. We've had some great racing over the years with the
rear wing, but I've never been crazy about the way it looks. But I will
say that the spoiler looks really good."

IN A MACHO SPORT LIKE AUTO RACING, IS IT FUNNY THAT THE DRIVERS ARE
CONCERNED WITH THE LOOKS?
"What race car driver doesn't want to drive a cool looking race car?
That's always been important."

ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MARTINSVILLE TO THE NASCAR CUP SERIES
"I think it's important to keep short tracks on the circuit. I think that
this is what the history of the sport has been built on. And I think it's
some of our best racing and the best action that we have. I'm a big fan
of growing the sport and reaching out to new fans, but I also know how
important our core fans are in the history of our sport. Martinsville
pretty much epitomizes that and I'd love to see it stay with both races."

WILL MARTINSVILLE AND PHOENIX BE GOOD TESTS FOR THE SPOILER, OR WILL THE
REAL TEST COME AT TEXAS?
"I think Phoenix will be a better test; it's a bigger and faster track
than this (Martinsville). I thought the test went really well at
Charlotte the other day. There were no big surprises, which I think was
something we were all happy about. Until we go to a bigger track and see
what it's like driving one another, that's going to be the best test that
we'll have."

ON TWO WEEKENDS OFF, CLOSE TOGETHER ON THE CALENDAR, IS THAT GOOD OR BAD?
"Oh, I don't think it affects our team in any way. It's fine by us. If I
had my way, I'd like to see us have an off-week after Daytona for two
reasons. Daytona is really long for all of us and we need a break, but
also to spend a little more time marketing the winner of that race and
being able to ship him all over the country and not wear him out before
he gets to the next race, and then go for a few weeks before we get an
off-weekend. But I'm just happy to have an off-weekend, so I'm not going
to get too involved with it."

ON GETTING INTO COMPETITORS' HEADS
"I think that if you focus on that, you're the one that can get messed
with the easiest when things aren't going your way. That's not a way I've
ever approached it. If you just go out there and win and do your job and
just keep focusing on doing that, then I think that's going to win your
respect as well as keeping you focused on the important things with your
team. There's no doubt that when someone has been as dominant as they've
(Jimmie Johnson and No. 48 team) been, you sit there and scratch your
head and say man, what do they have? What are they doing? What do we need
to do differently? And they're just that good of a race team. If I ever
question anything, it's just how do we make small little changes to our
team and our race cars to be that good. I see all the data. I see
everything. And those guys know how to put themselves in position and
capitalize on it when it counts the most. And they've just built
confidence. There's no doubt that they have a lot of confidence in their
program and what they're doing. Jimmie does in his driving and Chad
(Knaus) does in his ability to be a crew chief. But nobody is invincible
out here."

FOR A LONG TIME, THAT GUY WAS YOU. GETTING INTO PEOPLE'S HEADS, WHAT WAS
THAT LIKE? YOU WERE THE ONE WITH THE BULLSEYE ON YOUR CHEST
"To me, it just made us work that much harder to try to stay on top of
it. Those were the easiest weekends I ever had in this sport. When you
have things going your way like that, you just go to the race track and
it doesn't matter where you're at on the board. You feel like
you've got a shot at winning the race. And you just focus on that and the
cars are driving so good. It seems like the decisions that are made are
always the right ones. At the end of the day, you're driving into victory
lane going, 'Wow, we won another race!' And you win the races that you
shouldn't be winning and you're winning the ones that you should be
winning. And it's an awesome feeling. But I've never focused on how that
affects the competition. I just really focus on how do we maintain that."

ON THE PROGRESS OF RACE TEAM THIS SEASON VERSUS LAST YEAR AT THIS
TIME...
"I feel like we've definitely made progress, and that most of the
progress has been on the communication between myself and Steve and our
engineers. That's what we focused on the most over the off season
was really talking about how we dissect everything that we talk about
over the radio throughout the weekend. We talked about how we go through
data, adjustments, and everything before qualifying or after practice or
even during a race. I feel like we've really made some gains
there. Even last week at Bristol we had a moment where we started to
lose position and we got it back. That's what I'm most proud
of with this race team even though we haven't had the results to
show for it yet other than at Vegas. I feel like it's something
we're capable of doing."

WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT COMING TO MARTINSVILLE?
"The racetrack. I love this track. It seems like a natural fit for my
driving style. Our race cars are always fast here. I love qualifying
here and it seems like we always have a chance at the pole. I'm
not sure that we'll get that opportunity today unfortunately, but I
hope we do. I just love the challenges of this race track and what it
presents to a driver--how hard to drive into the corner without over
driving the corner, what you have to tell the team to get the car to work
through the corner and off the corner, to try to go out there and win the
race. It's a fun track to tune [the car] on."

WHAT EXPECTATIONS DO VETERANS DRIVERS HAVE ON HOW THE UP-AND-COMING GUYS
ARE GOING TO RACE THEM?
"I think with a young driver you expect them to go through lessons like
all of us did going up. If you see a guy that is disrespecting you or
not learning those lessons, then you want to make sure that they do.
Sometimes you do thing on principle just to teach them because
we've all been there. I don't think it matters who you are;
you have to have respect for your competition. We push and shove out
here and that's competition. I just treat people how they treat
me. So if it's a rookie driver and I feel like I'm faster
than him and I make several attempts at passing him clean and he keeps
chopping me, well then I'm going to show him why you
shouldn't do that. I have to pick and choose those battles with
myself as well as with myself."

HOW DO THEY MANIFEST THAT DISRESPECT?
"It's tough; when you're young you want to come in and prove
to everybody that you have what it takes. You're kind of trying
too hard at times to show that and it forces you to make mistakes. A lot
of times you see guys get into other competitors and upsetting guys. I
went through it and there isn't a guy out here that I know of that
didn't go through that to some extent. It's tough. You have
to put yourself in their shoes, realize they're rookies and that
they're allowed to make mistakes. When it happens consistently,
over and over to with the same guy, then it's your duty as a
veteran to school that person."

HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO TALK TO THEM, OR IS THAT A LESSON THAT NEEDS TO BE
TAUGHT ON THE TRACK?
"Sometimes you talk to them. I remember talking to Kurt Busch when he
was first coming along about some things at Daytona at Talladega. There
are certain drivers that you know have what it takes and it's worth
the effort to sit down with somebody. It was just Kurt being real
aggressive, which he is and certainly was when he first came along.
It's tough with the schedule changes to really find time to really
find guys and sit down with them and talk with them. We used to have
practice in the morning on Saturday, and then a break with another race,
and then practice in the afternoon. You used to have time to go sit down
with NASCAR or you could go find another driver; you could go do a lot of
things. Now we don't have that [opportunity] anymore."

TALK ABOUT LUCKY DOG, OR THE MARTINSVILLE DOG
"I'm not a fan of either (laughs). I know that the Martinsville dogs are
famous and everybody on my team loves them. Hey listen, I used to eat
more hot dogs and corn dogs than probably anybody else in this garage
area. I don't do that anymore. And for some reason, the Martinsville dog
was never appealing to me. But the Lucky Dog? It's great when you need
it. But the rest of the time, it's not the greatest thing."

WOULD YOU BE UNHAPPY IF QUALIFYING IS RAINED OUT AND YOU HAVE TO START
11th?
"I'll be disappointed because I feel like we have a shot at the pole and
I like to qualify here. Looking at the radar, I'm not getting my hopes up
that we're going to qualify today so we're already looking at strategy
for pit picks and trying to get something that will work for us on
Sunday.

YOU'RE NOT STARTING IN THE BACK, BUT NOT UP FRONT EITHER
"What are we, 11th in points? That's not a terrible place to start. We
can manage that. But you look at the competition you're going to have to
race, and qualifying gives us an opportunity to try to get ahead of some
of those guys that are ahead of us in points, which we'd certainly like
to get that opportunity. But it's not the end of the world."

ON PHOENIX, WILL THE ADDED MILES MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
"It's interesting to see how it's going to affect the race from a fuel
mileage strategy standpoint. And you won't know until you get into it. It
just depends on how the cautions fall as it does in most races. From a
reliability standpoint, no big deal. I love that race track, but it is a
very challenging race track. Both ends of the race track are completely
opposite. It's sort of like a one mile Darlington without the banking in
my opinion; just in the way of it's impossible to get both ends of the
race track to work perfectly. And I like that challenge in a race track.
It's a fun track. I've driven on that track since I was like 18 years
old. So, it's one I always look forward to going to."

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON NASCAR CHANGING TO FUEL INJECTION?
"I don't have a big opinion on it. It's been a long-time coming. From
talking to some of the engine guys, it's not a full-blown fuel injection.
It's kind of like a semi-modified carburetor-slash-fuel injection. I
think that we have some ideas on how we can make it really more
efficient. But I think this is a good step in that direction and I'm
happy that NASCAR is going with it."

SIZING UP THE FIELD, DO YOU SEE ANOTHER DRIVER THAT IS READY TO MAKE A
MOVE TO CHALLENGE FOR THOSE TOP SPOTS?
"I'll tell you, Juan Pablo (Montoya) was really strong here the last time
and he looked good in practice today. I expect if anybody is disappointed
with qualifying possibly being rained out it's probably him because he's
not very high up in the points and he's strong, and I think he had a shot
at qualifying up front and running good here. He's still going to be
tough in the race. But I would say that he's probably toward the top of
the list. You got any other names? I just know the last time I battled
really strong and hard with Juan Pablo and it's just a sign of how
they've turned their program around and how he's really learned the
tracks on the circuit."